wfn.org | CWS Expands Earthquake Relief Efforts Despite Weather

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE EXPANDS RELIEF EFFORTS IN SPITE OF WEATHER

NEW YORK / ISLAMABAD * Oct 17-Church World Service (CWS) is expanding its
relief efforts to reach survivors of the October 8 earthquake but is
hampered by adverse weather and security conditions.

CWS truckloads of material continue to arrive in Mansehra on a daily
basis, but weather conditions hampered relief efforts for a second day on
Saturday. Staff carried out a needs assessment for emergency water and
sanitation at Ayub Medical Hospital-Abbotabad on Saturday morning. Bad
weather forced the team to abandon its assessment visits to Battagram and
Balakot,.

On October 13 (Thursday), CWS began to air drop shelter kits from army
helicopters to some of the most affected and difficult to reach areas in
Battagram, including 365 kits in Allai village. Using army helicopters has
allowed CWS to carry out rapid distributions not only in inaccessible
areas but has also prevented goods from being looted.

Because of the deteriorating security situation, CWS was not able to
resume the air delivery of shelter kits the following morning (Friday,
October 14), and heavy rains and hailstorms prevented the air delivery of
shelter kits on Saturday.

The Pakistan meteorological office was forecasting more thunderstorms and
hail in the coming days, which could further delay relief efforts and put
survivors at greater risk.

CWS reported that the army has been extremely cooperative so far in the
air-drop operation, and that currently the needs-assessment team is
negotiating the delivery of more shelter kits to hard-to-reach areas. CWS
said the army was very pleased to see the swift response of CWS and that
the brigadier in charge there said that CWS has brought in the largest
consignment of shelter kits so far. However, CWS also reported problems in
obtaining enough shelter kits and trucks for transportation to meet the
high demand.

To meet some of the demand, a flight with the first 40 to 45 metric tons
of tents was expected to leave Oslo on Sunday, and the remainder of the
85-metric-ton shipment will arrive in Pakistan this week.

Over the weekend, Pakistan's government announced the latest death toll
with a figure that had been revised sharply upward. In addition to rain
and hail, snow has begun to fall in some parts of Kashmir. The arrival of
harsher winter conditions makes reaching the earthquake survivors all the
more crucial. With as many as 2.5 million people homeless, reports from
the affected areas say that survivors' most critical needs are not food
and clothing, but shelter and medical assistance, as many hospitals were
destroyed in the earthquake as well.

Pakistan's disaster-response chief said that the authorities would not be
able to provide shelter before the winter to many of the homeless
survivors. Major General Farooq Javed told a news conference in Islamabad
there were dire shortages of blankets and tents, but plans were underway
to import two million blankets and 100,000 large tents.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Please include in your listings of responding
agencies:
Contributions to support these efforts may be sent to:
Church World Service
Southern Asia Earthquake--#6979
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made online at http://churchworldservice.org/,
or by calling 800.297.1516, ext. 222.

###


CONTACTS:

Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org